


A Spot of Colour

by thekeyholder



Category: Muse
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Challenge Response, Friendship/Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-01
Updated: 2013-05-01
Packaged: 2017-12-10 02:31:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/780740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thekeyholder/pseuds/thekeyholder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt is member of his school's photo club; the theme for April is "Find-a-rainbow Day". He has zero inspiration until his best friend Dominic indirectly helps him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Spot of Colour

**Author's Note:**

> This is my entry for the April challenge at [stellarclouds](http://stellarclouds.livejournal.com/), I hope you'll enjoy it.

“We need an interesting challenge for April,” Tom stated as he entered the room and threw his books on the table.  
  
Several members of the photo club flinched at the unexpectedly loud noise. Truthfully, they weren’t really in the mood for brainstorming: after a busy day all they wanted was to go home and sleep, homework and other obligations be damned.  
  
“Come on, guys, we need to come up with something this afternoon, so it will appear in the school’s newspaper on Monday. It should be something fun and colourful after last month’s black and white photo contest.”  
  
Silence fell on the small group. Finally, someone mumbled: “Easter.”  
  
Pained groans followed the suggestion.  
  
“Nah, that’s so cliché. We need something original.”  
  
“April Fools’ Day.”  
  
Tom pondered. “Okay, not that bad, though that’s hard to represent through photographs. We’d wake up with tons of prank videos in our inbox.”  
  
Martin, the proposer of the idea, huffed with annoyance: “Sod off, you’re the president, you should be doing this.”  
  
“I know you’re all tired and hungry, but this is a club which means we work and make decisions together,” Tom rubbed his forehead and sat down.  
  
The awkward silence was finally interrupted by Chris: “Easter and April Fool’s Day are both holidays, maybe there’s a nice celebration we’re not aware of?”  
  
“That’s a good idea. Could you check it on the internet?”  
  
Chris nodded and took out his phone. “Wow,” he exclaimed and stared wide-eyed at the small screen. The others gathered around him, intrigued. “It seems like there are lots of celebrations in April, a huge list actually.”  
  
“Saint George’s Day.”  
  
“Nah.”  
  
“National Poetry Month, International Guitar Month…”  
  
“Interesting, but not fitting for us.”  
  
“Find-a-Rainbow day – April 7th,” Chris read on.  
  
“Gay,” Martin commented and nudged Matthew, both giggling frantically.  
  
“That’s actually pretty good,” Tom said as he glared at the guys with his black, unforgiving eyes. “I bet no one knew about it and the entries will be certainly colourful.”  
  
He sat down and took out a notebook. “So Find-a-Rainbow day is on the 7th…hmm, let’s see the deadlines. Pics can be sent in till the 29th March, then voting will take place between 1-5th April. We announce the winner on the actual holiday. Right, you lot can go home.”  
  
Matthew threw everything quickly in his backpack to catch up with Martin who was already at the door. However, as they were about to exit the classroom Tom called Matthew back.  
  
“Matt, could I ask a favour?”  
  
Matthew shrugged, trying to keep on a serious expression when Martin poked him in the ribs.  
  
“Could you please post about the contest on the school’s site and on our Facebook page?” Tom asked, gathering his things and glancing at his wristwatch. “Sadly, I still have some designs to make for the newspaper and my laptop died yesterday, so I’m behind on everything. Sorry about dumping it on you.”  
  
“Gosh, Tom, you need to relax,” Martin chipped in. “Let mister vice president here do it for you, I’m sure even he can’t mess it up.”  
  
He wasn’t quick enough to avoid Matt’s playful punch on his arm. Tom watched them with an amused smile and gently pushed them towards the door. “Matt, will you remember the deadlines?”  
  
“Yup, I put them down in my notebook,” Matthew winked and said goodbye to his friend.

 

 

* * * * *

  
“You were right, my parents took the news well.”  
  
Matthew hummed in response, kicking a pebble absentmindedly.  
  
“I told them I’d ditch uni plans and become a stripper.”  
  
When Matt hummed again, Martin knew. “You’re not even listening, are you? What’s wrong with you, Matt? Other times you’re talking my head off and now you’re just walking here beside me like a depressed ghost.”  
  
“I can’t get that stupid photo contest out of my head. I keep thinking, but I don’t remember taking any pics of rainbows,” Matthew complained.  
  
“You still have three weeks to shoot one. Have a look around: spring has just arrived. The weather is fine now, but it’s bound to become rainy. I bet we’ll have rainbows at some point,” Martin tried to comfort his friend. “Besides, doesn’t Tom always preach to be creative and not to take themes literally? You’re the artistic one, Matthew Bellamy, I’m sure you’ll come up with something amazing!”  
  
Matt smiled. “Right. What about you?”  
  
Martin breathed in, trying to look normal, but the twinkle in his deep blue eyes betrayed him.  
  
“You DO have an idea!” Matthew laughed and pushed for an answer. “Tell me, what is it?”  
  
“You’re right, I have an idea, but I’m not sure if I can accomplish it. I need someone’s permission and they might be reluctant,” Martin answered, looking thoughtful.  
  
“A portrait? Oh, that’s interesting,” Matthew answered and fell silent, trying to comprehend how would his friend find a rainbow in someone.  
  
“Figuratively, Matthew. Please, don’t break your brain trying to figure it out.”  
  
“Shut up, midget!” Matthew shouted.  
  
“Midget? We’re practically the same height!” Martin protested. “Rude bastard.”  
  
Matthew shot out his tongue before opening the door to his house. “See you later, Smartin Smartipants!”  


 

* * * * *

  
After he ate his lunch, Matthew sat down in front of his computer to do the tasks that Tom had asked him to do. First, he logged in to the photo club’s Facebook page – he knew that students checked Facebook more often than the school’s site and news would spread quicker. He checked the deadlines again and wrote the following message:  
  
 _“Hello, everyone! We come bearing good news! The theme for this month’s contest is linked to an interesting holiday in April: Find-a-Rainbow Day. So be creative and send in your photos or collages until the 29 th March. As usual, the winner will be chosen based on your votes. Remember, one photo/person and no manips are accepted. Let your imagination run freely! Send your creations to: photo_club@gmail.com.”_  
  
Matthew then opened the school’s site and after he logged in, he posted the same message. He returned to the Facebook page and to his joy several students liked the announcement. Among them was Dominic Howard, Matthew’s best friend and neighbour. The computer pinged – he received a message. As he hoped it was from Dom, inviting him over. Matt smiled and turned off his computer – he could use a little distraction.  


 

* * * * *

  
_A few days later…_  
  
“Come on, Matt! You said you’d help me with my Maths homework!” Dominic whined, stretching himself lazily as he lay in his bed, his red trousers hanging low on his narrow waist.  
  
Matthew narrowed his eyes as he looked outside at the neat rows of houses which were basking in the light, spring sunshine. The sky was provokingly blue: no signs of rain clouds like Martin had said. How would he ever take a picture of a rainbow?  
  
Suddenly, there was a pair of well-known hands on Matthew’s shoulder, massaging his tense shoulders. Matthew breathed out, closing his eyes.  
  
“It’s about the photo contest, isn’t it?” Dom whispered and rolled his eyes after Matt hummed. “Relax, mate. This rainbow hunt is getting out of your control. Why is it so important anyway?”  
  
Matt turned around, his expression sheepish. “I don’t know, Dom. Photography is the only thing I’m remotely good at; I suck at everything else.”  
  
Dom snorted. “Right, come and help me with some equations or else I’ll fail the test next week.”  


 

* * * * *

  
_A week later…_  
  
Dominic nicked Matt’s camera from the table and took a picture of his friend, chuckling with a warm glow in his grey eyes.  
  
“You should see your face! Even a child whose candies were taken couldn’t look so sad and disappointed like you!”  
  
“I’m sorry, but have you actually looked OUTSIDE?!” Matthew grumbled and folded his arms in protest.  
  
“No, Matt, I teleported myself to your house. Of course, you dork, I was even outside! It’s lovely!” Dominic smiled as he perched himself on Matt’s desk, letting his legs swing carelessly.  
  
“LOVELY?! I’m sorry, but how can snow in bloody March be lovely?” Matthew exclaimed and looked at the pure whiteness covering everything.  
  
“I was thinking we could go for a walk, have a snowball fight and such. You should take your camera too,” Dominic advised his friend and hopped off from the table. “Come on!”

 

 

* * * * *

  
Admittedly, it was impossible to stay surly when Dominic was around with his bright enthusiasm. Matthew had to agree that it was a good idea to let himself be dragged outside. They didn’t have any snow in the winter – he complained about it during Christmas – and if the weather decided to give them a portion for Easter, well they should take it. How was that saying? When life gives you lemons, make lemonade? Well, in his case, when life gives you snow for Easter, make a snow bunny. That was Dom’s idea as well.  
  
They had a nice walk in the crisp air while snow was still quietly falling around them and Matthew took a few pictures of the scenery and of the snow-covered flowers. Then they returned to Matt’s garden and Dom suggested that instead of the traditional snowman they made a snow bunny. The idea was ridiculous, but nevertheless they made two snowballs: a bigger one for the bunny’s body and a smaller one for the head. They placed two small snowballs as the rabbit’s feet and Dominic laughed heartily as he put another one behind the bunny as its tail. Two pebbles formed its eyes and two twigs the ears. Truth was it looked like a fantasy animal, but it had been great fun to build it.  
  
As Matt handed Dom the two pebbles, he noticed that his friend’s gloves were soaked. Dom must be freezing. Without another thought, Matt took off his thick mittens and handed them over: “Here, put them on. Your fingers will freeze off.”  
  
“No, I don’t need them,” Dom pushed Matt’s hands away gently, but his friend insisted until he took them. “You really shouldn’t. I live two minutes from here.”  
  
“It doesn’t matter.”  
  
“Um…thanks.”  
  
Finally, they bid each other goodbye as Dom received a text message from his mother that lunch would be ready soon. Matt entered the house, but for some reason he looked outside from the hall’s window. Dominic was admiring the frozen trees whose rimy branches scintillated in the faint afternoon light. He was the only spot of colour in the snowy landscape: his yellow trousers were especially cunning. Without clearly realising what he was doing, Matthew raised the camera to his right eye and shot a picture of his friend. He lowered the camera and his hot breath blurred the window as he pressed his face closer to the glass and watched Dominic finally turning, arranging his navy beanie over his blonde locks as he made his way home. An idea, nebulous, was buzzing at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t grasp it yet.  


 

* * * * *

  
_A week later…_  
  
This was probably the tenth time Matthew was looking through his pictures. Rainbow, rainbow, rainbow…damn the rainbow! He raked through his dark hair anxiously. It was becoming quite irritating. He looked at the folder again: trip to London with Dom, Dom’s seventeenth birthday, gig photos, pics of animals, Dom at the drumming contest, class trip to Exeter, the random Photoshop experiments, but nothing was suitable. When he heard some voices downstairs, he quickly closed the window. Dom came over for their usual World of Warcraft Saturday evening and he didn’t want his friend to know just how much he’d been beating his brain out trying to find a good entry. It was in his nature to obsess about things and he couldn’t help it, but he knew that Dom would worry about him and he didn’t want that.  
  
“Evening, good sir!” Dom greeted as he entered the room. “I come bearing chocolate and gummy bears.”  
  
“You are most welcome to enter my humble lair, stranger,” Matt replied with a smile.  
  
“Hey, I wanted to show you this funny video.”  
  
They ended up watching funny videos on Youtube until Matt’s phone rang. He reached for it, curious, and read the message. “It’s from Martin. Says he’s just sent his entry for the photo contest.”  
  
“Oh, will you show it to me, please? Or is that against the rules?” Dom asked.  
  
“No, it’s all right, I have to gather all the photos in a folder anyway. I honestly haven’t even checked the club’s email address, so if you want, we can take a look at them,” Matthew said trying to sound nonchalant.  
  
The truth was that it required a great deal of control not to look through them, but he wasn’t going to disclose that secret.  
  
“That would be great. I’m just really curious about Martin’s entry; I met him yesterday evening and apparently he was coming home from his photo shooting session with a stranger. He looked surprisingly happy.”  
  
“Hmm, so he hasn’t told you either what he planned?” Matthew asked as he typed in the password. “He’s been so secretive!”  
  
The page finally loaded and there were several unread messages. The top one was from Martin and Matthew clicked it eagerly. He felt Dominic leaning in curiously over his right shoulder. Probably neither of them expected to see a close-up picture of a young man’s eyes. There was a moment of stunned silence before Dominic smiled broadly and said: “Well, I must say Martin’s idea is pretty cool!”  
  
Matthew turned his head to the right absentmindedly, not even realising that his brown curls touched Dom’s fair ones. He had to agree with his friend: the eyes were mesmerising. They seemed greenish around the pupil, a pale green like that of jade, and the colour faded into a light blue. Hmm, how curious, to find a rainbow in someone’s eyes! Matthew wished he would have thought about it; Dom had some really interesting eyes as well.  
  
They looked then at the other entries and only two of them depicted actual rainbows, the other amateur photographers found creative ways to illustrate the theme. So far, Matthew’s favourite was Chris’ photo: he took a picture as delicate morning light reflected on the drops of dawn on a green leaf. Tom was right: they received colourful and nice pictures. Heavy frustration pressed down on Matthew and he watched with sad eyes as Dominic took out his laptop. It was just then that he noticed the blonde’s strange outfit: he was entirely dressed in green, a nuance that could only be described as pistachio green.  
  
He snorted and Dom turned sharply. “What’s so funny? Is there something on my arse? Did I sit in something?”  
  
“No, I was just wondering if you’re going to a carnival later. You look like a parrot,” Matt laughed.  
  
“Very funny. I just noticed that green brings me luck and I want to kick your arse at the game.”  
  
Matthew laughed until a pack of gummy bears hit his face.  
  
“This means war, Dominic Howard!” he shouted and wiggled his fingers, ready for the game.  


 

* * * * *

  
_Two days till the deadline…_  
  
Matthew gave up. Shame or no shame, he wouldn’t send in anything that month. Rainbows sucked. Rainbows were gay. Damn, he didn’t mean to sound homophobic, he wasn’t like that! He just didn’t click with this theme. He was sat on his windowsill, reading an intriguing story, when he saw a familiar figure outside. He opened the window and greeted his friend: “Hey, where have you been?”  
  
Dom looked up and took off his sunglasses. “Got some money from my parents for Easter and went shopping. I bought your present too,” he grinned proudly.  
  
“Come up then!” Matt invited his friend in and shut the window.  
  
“If you think that I’m giving you your present now, then you’re wrong,” Dom stated as he entered the house.  
  
“Fine, just show me what you got.”  
  
“Nothing much, just a new set of drumsticks, a few CDs and two pairs of trousers,” Dominic enumerated as he exhibited the items.  
  
Matthew’s eyes landed on the blue and purple trousers and suddenly it was like heavenly inspiration dawned on him. He smiled broadly before proposing his idea to Dom:  
  
“Umm, Dom, would you put on that purple pair?”  
  
The blonde frowned. “Why?”  
  
Matt fidgeted. “I can’t tell you. Yet. Please?”  
  
Finally, Matt took a picture of Dom in the garden – the light was perfect. Then he sent his friend home and promised to reveal everything in a few days. He sat in front of his computer and gathered the other six necessary pictures to make the collage. When he was done, he added it to the folder containing all the entries. He smiled with satisfaction.  


 

* * * * *

  
_On the first day of voting…_  
  
Matthew was so glad that he could sleep in. He’d been waiting for the Easter holiday for far too long. He loved lazy mornings and took his time with breakfast. He was eager to log in to the internet and see if Tom had uploaded the pictures on the school’s site. The voting was anonymous, just like the photographers’ identity. Matthew snickered as he bit into a slice of bread.  
  
There was a knock on the door. He got up, still chewing, and opened the door to see his best friend.  
  
“When did you want to tell me about the pic?” he asked as he leaned against the doorframe.  
  
“Uh…good morning to you too,” Matthew mumbled and went inside the house.  
  
Dominic sat beside Matt at the kitchen table. “I woke up this morning to a few text messages calling me ‘Prince Rainbow’. Then I asked Martin and he told me to look on the school’s site.”  
  
Matthew blushed, assiduously stuffing his mouth with jammy bread. A few minutes later he got up and put his plate in the sink, mumbling: “It seemed like a good idea. You’re wearing rainbows. You _are_ a rainbow.”  
  
When he turned, Dominic was right behind him.  
  
“You know, Matthew,” he whispered mysteriously, “rainbows attract attention.”  
  
“They do?” Matt squeaked and glanced down at Dominic’s lips.  
  
“I thought it would work…”  
  
“It does,” was all Matthew could say before he launched forward and pressed his lips to Dominic’s who in turn pushed him against the counter gently.  
  
Dominic rested his forehead against Matt’s and smiled. “I think you found a rainbow, after all.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you're wondering, yes, Martin has been inspired by _that_ Martin. :))


End file.
